the secret of the fountain of youth

Looking out the door into my current world.

The wind was blowing like crazy this morning, it actually woke me up before I would normally get out of bed. The annoying thing is this much wind was not mentioned in the weather forecast it was supposed to be just a little breezy later today, but I wouldn't tow the Arctic Fox if I had planned on leaving today, this wind to me is right at the edge of being dangerous to pull a trailer.

Maybe because it's springtime, but it has been kinda windy around here a lot of the time. Pretty much every day has at least some bothersome wind going on for part of the day, and since I don't like wind to start with, the Valley the Fires is not endearing itself to me, not so much that I wouldn't come back again, but just enough to take it off my list of places I really like to be,

Since I'm planning on being back in Denver in about two weeks there's not much left of my winter travels. I got to thinking that since I make a big circle during the winter through Arizona and New Mexico my trip always begins in Arizona and ends in New Mexico, one of these times I ought to go the other way and travel to New Mexico first.

The reason I've always gone to Arizona first is it's the quickest way to get warm. Winter comes quickly to Colorado, it doesn't sneak up on you, it roars out of the mountains, turns your life Into a battle against nature for six months, then disappears one day in May like nothing ever happened. For me the best way to beat that cycle has always been to get to southern Arizona as quickly as possible.

But despite the fact that it works for me I do truly dislike getting in a rut. After all their called ruts for a reason, their easy to get into and hard to get out of. But I've found ruts to be the quickest way to get old. As soon as life becomes formulaic, and there are hardly any challenges involved to the point you could walk through your day blindfolded, I think it causes folks to age quicker.

So I do need to get out of the rut I've made for myself with my annual counterclockwise circle through Arizona and New Mexico. Every time I make that circle I get complacent, the rut grows deeper and deeper, becoming even more difficult to get out of.

We tend to be drawn to the easy, the simple, the safety of the familiar. But those things offer no challenges. Their a gentle downhill slope, a path of least resistance, a way to get through each day without a stumble, a mistake, or even an inconvenience.  And yet it's those missteps and the everyday difficulties of life that gives us a reason to face each new day with hope, the joy of being alive, and facing new challenges, which I believe helps keep us young.

So what's the secret of the Fountain of Youth? very simple ..... its the challenge of the quest.                     

                      theboondork

Surviving in a lava field.

Since I'm often saying that the flower I'm taking a picture of is the size of my fingernail, I figured I should show everybody what I'm talking about. That dime the flowers laying on is the sum total of my life savings. I figured I would take a picture of it just in case it gets stolen I could show the insurance company that I actually did have a dime, because looking at me they would never believe it.